Project Summary:

  PEL Questionnaire and Checklist

  Process Summary

The Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) process, a specific product of implementing SAFETEA-LU, seeks to develop subarea and corridor studies that can be used more directly to inform the NEPA process.  Effective, conceptual - level transportation studies that follow the PEL process provide opportunities both to identify important issues of concern early and to build the agency, stakeholder, and public understanding necessary to successfully address them.  This document has been developed by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) to provide guidance, particularly to transportation planners and environmental planners.  By considering the questions and issues raised in this questionnaire, transportation planners will become more aware of potential gaps in their subarea or corridor studies, better understand the needs of future users of the studies, and be reminded of the benefits of wider and / or deeper collaboration with agencies, the public, and other stakeholders.  Environmental planners who fill out the checklist will assume a new role in the transportation planning process: becoming an advocate for early awareness of environmental issues before the NEPA process begins.